Roles and Efforts of the Irrigation Sector in Myanmar Agricultural Practice

Abstract

AbstractAgriculture has always been the dominant sector in the economy of Myanmar. The agricultural sector contributes 22.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) (2014–2015), 20% of total export earnings and employs more than 61.2% of the labour force. At present, the country produces enough food to supply its people and export the surplus production. The total land area of Myanmar is 67.7 Mha (million hectares), and the cultivable land is 26% of the total area, i.e. 17.7 Mha, of which only about 12.0 Mha is net sown area. Also, Myanmar is rich in water resources potential, of which surface water is about 108 000 Mm3 of water volume per annum while groundwater potential is about 49 500 Mm3 in 8 river basins in the country. As a part of water resources utilization in the agricultural sector, 581 irrigation dams have been completed, further increasing the irrigable area of 2.78 Mha by the end of March 2016. Because of the traditional irrigation practice of plot‐to‐plot irrigation, water productivity (WP) is only 40%. In order to improve WP as well as environmental conservation, farmer participation is of vital importance for improving agricultural productivity and poverty alleviation by enhancing irrigation and drainage schemes in agricultural sector development. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.